On raising a son on the autism spectrum, progressive politics, pop culture, and coffee addiction.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Biden my time

Yes, I am still here. Thanks to those of you who have checked in to make sure that I haven't checked out. As you may know, I work at a college, which means that this is one of the busiest times of year for me in a regular year, and because of a number of factors at my particular institution, this August has been crazier than most. Add to that the fact that Bud is gearing up to start third grade next week (with all the hopes and fears inherent in that) and that I am trying to squeeze in my RDI "homework" when free moments present themselves, and there's just not a lot of time left for blogging. But I am still here.

Of course, I'm also distracted this week by Barack Obama's announcement that Joe Biden will be his running mate. I like Biden and I think he's a good choice, but I just don't understand the timing of the announcement. Like the rest of the good, faithful Obama supporters out there, I spent all day Friday checking my phone for the big text message announcement that didn't come. I checked CNN before I went to bed Friday night and learned that Kaine and Bayh were out of the running, and all signs were pointing to Biden.

I woke the next morning to a by-then-anticlimactic text message from the Obama campaign that had been delivered at 3:17 a.m.

Seriously? 3:17? Followed by their kick-off rally on a Saturday afternoon, when most of America was at the beach or the mall or anywhere else but in front of their televisions?

What does this mean?

I'm inclined to think one of two things: 1) They intended to make the announcement on Friday, but encountered a technological glitch that would have fouled up the text message thing, and the risk of embarrassment about such a high-profile plan was worse than bad timing for the event, or 2) This was calculated timing, designed to allow the press to publicly vet Joe Biden while no one was paying attention, so that what he was saying (and not who he is) was making headlines by the time anyone started listening.

Or maybe the Obama folks are just as busy as I am right now - which makes me wonder if I might be under-utilizing my time at 3:17 a.m....

16 comments:

yep, just confirms what i always knew about you...you are *such* a slacker! (totally kidding!) i mena, aren't we *all* up at 3:17 each morning? (well, i have been lately but that's a whole other issue!)

This is a wild time in the public school business, too. I was frantically preparing posts last week when I was "stuck" at home for various reasons, unable to get started in my classroom. Mixed feelings on Biden. Seems like a very calculated choice, but could be effective.

The timing of this means one thing: it is time for all of us dyed-in-the-wool liberals to get over ourselves! It is not about when we got the text message it is about our candidate utilizing technology. Now is the time for the convention and for OBiden (have you heard that one?) to behave like mainstream politicians in order to convince the other party that they can DO THE JOB! We need to support them unequivocally every step of the way because they need our support!!Welcome back, you have been missed.

My dad decided to surprise my mom by signing her up for the text message alert. Then he forgot all about it after all the major cable news guys leaked the Biden news Friday evening. I ask you: Is waking up senior citizens at 3 a.m. to "announce" old news a good campaign strategy?

On the other hand, mom is cooing over the email she got as well. "He called me by my first name and signed it 'Barack'!" A few months ago, she was a Hillary-or-elser. Now she's a total Mama for Obama. Hope she's part of a trend.

I'm pretty stoked about Joebama, myself, and agree that there was probably a technical glitch in making it all happen on Friday, even if only getting Biden to IL in time...either way, I like it and I'm so hopeful I have butterflies in my stomach. I'm just not used to the good guys winning, you know?? Eek. The alternative is too scary. I was happy to see Biden being more direct in his criticisms of McCain - it's time for us to stop being so damn nice all the time and say what we think, or we ain't gonna make it.

I have heard from a number of people who follow this kind of thing that they were going to announce earlier in the week, but were getting so much good mileage out of the McCain-doesn't-know-how-many-houses-he-owns story that they delayed it. And then they made the announcement timed so that it would be the big story on Sunday, when people read the paper and watch the pundit shows. This makes sense to me.

That does make a lot of sense, Sarah. And by sending the text at 3 am, they were pretty much guaranteed that it wouldn't make it into any Saturday editions, which scored them the front page of every Sunday edition.

I'm pretty sure that if I were in the sort of career in which I had to think like that on a regular basis, my head would have popped off a long time ago.